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At next Wednesday's County Council meeting, councillor Jeremy Hilton (LD, Kingsholm and Wotton) will defend the current governance of the county's fire and rescue service.

He said: "Gloucestershire County Council has run our fire and rescue service since 1974 and it is regarded as one of the best if not the best in the country. Similarly, our fire service is very good value for money at only £34 per head of population to operate.

"It would be absurd to change the governance arrangements of such a good service on a whim. I very much doubt that it would bring much in the way of benefits and could instead severely damage the excellent collaboration that already exists between the blue light services based at the county's Tri-Service Centre in Quedgeley.

Jeremy Hilton.

"I am strongly opposed to the unnecessary tampering of any service that isn't broke and doesn't require fixing. I hope elected members across the chamber will support my motion and that with one voice we can send a strong message to the Police and Crime Commissioner, Martin Surl to leave our county's fire and rescue service alone."

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Back in January, the Home Office announced that Police and Crime Commissioners across the country could make the case for taking responsibility for fire and rescue services.

Mr Surl in March accepted the government money to fund an independent review of a possible takeover.

Councillor Nigel Moor, the council's cabinet member for fire (C, Stow-on-the-Wold), said he supports Gloucestershire’s Fire @ Rescue Service being run by the council.

He said: "The way we work today saves the Fire Service money – with the County Council providing a range of services, like HR and property, for free.

"Because Fire and social services work so closely together, we have pioneered new ways of keeping people safe – for example targeting fire safety checks on the most vulnerable older people, and using retained fire fighters to respond to telecare alarms.

New firefighters who have joined Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, pictured with Stewart Edgar, left

"Passing control to the Police and Crime Commissioner would undermine that cooperation, cut funding for the fire service, and waste millions on the costs of change."

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Mr Surl said he has "absolutely no plans" to take over the day-to-day running of the fire service or the police.

He said: "The motion being put before the council is a matter for them but I would have thought it better to await the findings of the independent work being undertaken before taking a view.

"On June 8 I sent the interim findings to the leader and chief executive of the County Council and offered to meet. This offer has not been taken up and to date I have not received a copy of the report the Council commissioned in January 2017.

"I find it ironic that I only started this work because when I met with the leadership of the council on October 6 2016 they refused point blank to even discuss it with me or provide any information. The only way I could make an informed judgement was to commission this work which was paid for by the Home Office and supported by the then Police and Fire Minister, Brandon Lewis."